1879.] The Habits of a Tarantula. 487 
different color—yellowish with dashes of dark brown—his body 
is smaller than hers though his legs are longer. 
In August the males are abundant. I often see them bounding 
over grass and weeds, making long strides, fairly flying before 
me. At such times it is next to an impossibility to capture one. 
I have not been able to ascertain whether he has a settled home 
like the female, which he leaves to make amorous visits, or 
whether he always leads a vagrant kind of life. 
He approaches the female with the utmost caution. If she is 
within her den he stands at the door, sometimes hours together; 
nothing will induce him to venture within, and he is wonderfully 
oblivious of my presence. I cannot push him in, he will back 
out into my hand rather than be driven into the burrow. Now the 
female slowly advances to meet him, and he slowly retreats from 
the mouth of the den, moving backward while she moves forward, 
just reaching him with the tips of her fore-legs as if caressing 
him. She follows him in this way a foot or more, then leaves 
him and quickly returns to her den, he follows her to the door, 
where he keeps his post until she again comes forth, when the 
Same performance is repeated. 
I leave them, and on my next visit I find the male on the 
back of the female, with their heads both within the burrow and 
their long hind-legs sticking out. (This is not the position the 
spider assumes when he fertilizes the eggs, which is done by 
_ means of the palpal organs, necessitating the opposite direction 
- of the head.) They now remain perfectly still, and I pick them 
up by their legs and drop them into a wide-mouthed glass bottle. 
This displaces the male, and he crouches down in a helpless sort 
of way as if paralyzed with fear, not trying to make his escape at 
all. For afew moments the female pays no attention to him 
but makes vigorous efforts to escape. Soon, however, she 
pounces upon him, seizing him on the under side of the head— 
literally by the throat. He makes but feeble efforts of resistance, 
in fact, acts as if he rather enjoyed being eaten! I shake the 
bottle but she will not let go her hold. She soon makes him 
into a ball which she holds and sucks, seemingly with great 
relish. I now place the open bottle by the mouth of her den 
and she quickly disappears, taking with her the remains-of her 
lover, In a day or two after this another male was at her door 
behaving in a similar manner, I did not interfere with his move- 
ments, and do not know his fate. : 
